I was riding on the roadway between the 2 trails yesterday and had a blowout on my front tire — a visible gash that emptied the air very quickly. I learned that the same principles as apply in SUV blowouts apply to road bikes; or at least it worked fine here — don’t hit the brake and just keep the wheel steady until you come to a stop. I had just caught a tailwind after trudging against the wind for 5 miles, and hit 25 mph when the flat happened. Lucky for me, Mikall was not too far behind, got the tire inspected and together and replaced the tube in a jiffy. It was impressive.

Ok, so today we ran across our first snake in the george bush park – it was right in the middle of the path, luckily we were clipping along @ about 18 mph! As I recall it was a 4 foot rattler – of course, shell and mikall said it really was a foot long grass snake or something, but i’m sure their memory is clouded by fear of the slithery one! Or maybe that’s me…